Wow, Jennifer Rubin... well, she did say Obama had written a fine GOP plan, and that's true. Demoland is in denial that Obama created the Deficit Commission and is the one moving the ball forward to cut the misnamed entitlement programs while increasing our military overreach. They confuse his speeches with his agenda.

Dennis Blair was speaking to the Aspens the other day and mentioned that we were doing a lot of stupid stuff in the name of defense. He specifically mentioned the drone program as doing more harm than good. And here's the kicker: he said the US intelligence and Homeland Security "communities" are spending $80bn a year OUTSIDE of Pakistan and Afghanistan on the drone program!

Course, Jennifer is just happy the GOP is firewalling off defense or homeland security funding for budget cuts. No doubt wars won't be subject to a balanced budget amendment either, so what's the point.

Getting the politics to align for a carbon tax requires the right blend of honey and vinegar. For years, advocates’ and opponents’ attention alike has focused on the vinegar – the tax part. Lately, though, we’ve noticed growing interest about how to best spread the honey — the potentially huge revenues a carbon tax would generate. Here’s a primer on the options: what they are, how they would work, their merits and drawbacks, and who’s pushing them hardest......

.......The allure of carbon tax revenue also offers a growing incentive for other nations to match a U.S. carbon tax in order to avoid WTO-sanctioned border tax adjustments, capturing the revenue themselves.......

....... Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) also introduced a cap & dividend bill in the Ways & Means Committee. It relies on a cap to set the CO2 price indirectly, aiming for 85% reductions (over 2005 levels) by 2050. Because of its similar emissions trajectory, we’d expect Van Hollen’s bill to generate similar revenue to Rep. Larson’s bill: roughly $80 billion in the first year, rising to about $600 billion within a decade.

Our military is now capable of killing every mentally healthy man, woman, and child on earth 5 times over in 10 different ways. I am so relieved these figures will rise to 20 times over in 20 different ways. I am impressed by a congress that gets so aroused every time they see a man in uniform and blown up civilians. Perhaps they should tell a goy therapist of these things.

Elmendorf declined to specify which members and said he has yet to field an official request to study a VAT tax. The CBO is in the process of figuring out how best to study a VAT tax's impact, sorting through various structures employed by other countries. Elmendorf also declined to estimate what a VAT tax level would need to be to cover the 2020 debt, which the CBO predicted will be 90 percent of GDP.

"Somewhere along the way, a value-added tax plays into this. Of course, we want to take down the healthcare cost, that's one part of it," the Speaker added. "But in the scheme of things, I think it's fair look at a value- added tax as well."

Pelosi said that any new taxes would come after the Congress finishes the healthcare debate consuming most lawmakers' time, and that it may come as part of a larger overhaul to the tax code.